Friday, August 26, 2011

Britt Dietz has been recreating the classic George Petty pin-ups utilizing photographs. You can view the website for the project HERE, as well as check out the Facebook Album and Britt's FB page.

"George Petty was a wonderful Pin-Up artist for Esquire magazine during the late 30s and the 40s. Especially during World War 2, his art was the most famous of the time. Painted on the noses of aircraft during the war by the crews, the 'Petty Girl' became a symbolic reminder for service men of what they were fighting for. I've always been interested in Petty's work, I believe he was the 'classic' pin-up artist and there's not been another like him. The Petty Girl was innocent, teasing, but never full revealing. The classic traits of a true Pin-Up. I came up with an idea last year to 'recreate,' through photos (as close as I could), all of Petty's artwork from the late 1930s to the 1950s. It's a daunting task that will take years to do, but a fun project that I'm very excited for and will including as many different models as I can shoot with till the project is completed."

Probably the longest and most painstaking Petty image I've recreated thus far, and this was the second attempt at it! The final image came out one of the best yet, matching the overall original artwork almost perfectly. I was really happy how the hair came out, which is made from 5 different shots of her hair flying in the wind generated by two opposing wind machines. One of my favorites yet and a lot of fun to shoot!

Britt created a nice little write-up on his process using this photo shoot, to explain in more detail of how he manages to recreate these stunning images.